Taliban 3-month ceasefire offer
THE Taliban have offered a threemonth ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7 000 insurgent prisoners, an Afghan government negotiator said yesterday, as the militant group continues a sweeping offensive across the country.
“It is a big demand,” said Nader Nadery, a key member of the government team involved in peace talks with the Taliban, adding the insurgents also demanded the removal of their leaders’ names from a UN blacklist.
It was not clear how the government would react to the ceasefire offer, which comes as the US accelerates the pace of a troop withdrawal due to be finished by August 31. Nadery’s revelation came as Pakistan security forces used tear gas yesterday to disperse hundreds of people who tried to force their way across the border from Chaman to Spin Boldak in Afghanistan.
The border was closed on Wednesday by Pakistan officials after the Taliban seized Spin Boldak and raised insurgent flags above the town.
Jumadad Khan, a senior government official in Chaman, said the situation was now “under control”.
An Afghan Taliban source said that
hundreds of people had also gathered on the Afghan side, hoping to travel in the other direction. “We are talking to Pakistani authorities,” he said.
The crossing provides direct access to Pakistan’s Balochistan province where the Taliban’s top leadership has been based for decades – along with an unknown number of reserve fighters. .
A major highway leading from the border connects to Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi and its sprawling port on the Arabian Sea, which is considered a linchpin for Afghanistan’s billion-dollar heroin trade that has provided a crucial source of revenue for the Taliban’s war chest over the years.
Spin Boldak was the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the insurgents in recent
weeks as they look to choke off revenues much-needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers.
Muska Dastageer, a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, said the Taliban ceasefire offer was a likely attempt by them to consolidate the positions they have gained so swiftly in recent weeks. “A ceasefire now would effectively prohibit ANDSF from retaking the crucial border points which Taliban have captured recently,” she tweeted, referring to Afghan forces.
Authorities last year released more than 5 000 Taliban prisoners to help kick-start peace talks in Doha, but negotiations have so far failed to reach any political settlement, and the latest offensives suggest the insurgents are now set on a military victory.